LAHORE: Former Olympian and Pakistan head coach Khwaja Junaid reckons the national hockey team need to play sensibly against India in their crucial match of the Hockey League Semi-finals in Antwerp on Friday.

Talking to Dawn on Thursday, a day after Pakistan were thrashed 6-1 by Australia, Junaid said: “We need to play a very sensible game against India.

“We played an ill-planned game against the Australians and now we need to avoid letting emotions get the better of us against India. We need to avoid forced errors as the Indians will go all out in involving our players in a physical game.”

The HWL semi-finals present Pakistan a last chance to qualify for next year’s Rio Olympics and Junaid said that Pakistan shouldn’t have gone for a victory against Australia.

“Australia and India have already secured their berths in the Olympics and our priority should’ve been to lessen the margin of defeat against Australia,” he said.

“Pakistan are a better side than India but the only difference is that the Indians have already punched their tickets to Rio so they can be more relaxed.

“Against India, attacks should be coordinated and the whole team should go forward rather than a lone individual. Pakistan should start with a counter-attacking approach against India and not allow them to build up pressure.”

Junaid added that Pakistan have a solid goalkeeper in Imran Butt and have good experience in their ranks.

“Imran was great against Australia and saved no less than four goals in the opening two quarters,” he said. “We capitulated afterwards though and couldn’t hold onto possession against the Aussies.”

India qualified for the Olympics after beating Pakistan in the final of last year’s Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. Pakistan, however, won the last game between the two sides when they beat India 4-3 in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy in December.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2015

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